101 THE SNAKE-EATINC4 HAMADRYAD. 



The specimen before us, however, is undoubtedly that variety 

 and as such is of considerable interest, though the black marks 

 between the scales are less denned than in Dr. Fayrers admirable 

 drawing". 



Such being all the available information I was able to collect 

 on the subject of the Hamadryad you will easily understand 

 that I was pleased to make the acquaintance of two gentlemen 

 of this place, who had for some years devoted themselves to col- 

 lecting and preserving such objects of Natural History as the 

 extensive grounds surrounding their house in Sirangoon Road 

 allowed them to capture. I mentioned to them my desire to 

 come across a veritable specimen of 0. Maps and in a very few 

 days was informed that they had as they believed one of these 

 snakes in their collection. I was invited to inspect it and at 

 first sight we had no doubt of the correctness of the identifica- 

 tion. A detailed comparison of their specimen with Dr. Fayrer's 

 plate in his "Thanatophidia of India" convinced me that the 

 sought-for reptile was before us. I subjoin the narrative of its 

 capture verbatim as furnished. 



" My mandore u Manis" remembers the capture of the snake 

 very well, as he had a very narrow escape of being bitten. The 

 attack was quite unprovoked ; in fact the first sign of the snake's 

 presence was a loud hiss, and the sight of the snake's head 

 raised in the air on a level with his ( the mandore's ) breast. 

 By jumping smartly back he evaded the spring of the hama- 

 dryad and succeeded by means of bamboos close at hand, and 

 with the aid of the other gardeners close by, in getting the 

 snake held down to the ground until a noose was slipped round 

 his head, in which state he was placed alive in a large bottle. 



" I saw the snake alive in the bottle and it was only just dead 

 from suffocation when I poured in the spirit to preserve it. 



The mandore did not see the snake before, as it was coiled in 

 a recess amongst the roots of a large soontal tree about 15 

 yards from our house, and he was approaching the house from 

 the other side of the tree ; the snake made his spring just as the 

 man passed by. The man had been thirty years in Singapore at 

 least (he is a Bawian,) but had never seen this sort of snake be- 

 fore. He knew however at once from descriptions given him by 

 old Malays, and by men who lived in the jungle that it was a 

 Tudong-kore kuning. He had often heard of this snake and 

 knew it to be very deadly in its bite. He had heard that it was 

 also called "TJlar-mnri " but does not think this last the cor- 

 rect name, as he says it is evidently allied to the Cobra ; 



